Krasnogorskiy Zavod
Encyclopedia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n factory in Krasnogorsk
Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast
Krasnogorsk is a city and the administrative center of Krasnogorsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, adjacent to the northwestern boundary of Moscow, on the Moskva River...
near Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
which specializes in optical
Optics
Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...
technology.
During the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
period it was called Krasnogorsk Mechanical Works . The abbreviation KMZ is still in common use.
Products
KMZ is known largely for its photographic and movie cameraCamera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
s of the Zorki
Zorki
Zorki is the name of a series of 35mm rangefinder cameras manufactured in the Soviet Union between 1948 and 1978.The Zorki was a product of the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory , which also produced the Zenit single lens reflex camera...
, Zenit
Zenit (camera)
Zenit is a Russian camera brand manufactured by KMZ in the town of Krasnogorsk near Moscow since 1952 and by BelOMO in Belarus since the 1970s. The Zenit trademark is associated with 35mm SLR cameras...
and Krasnogorsk
Krasnogorsk (camera)
The Krasnogorsk-3 is a spring-wound 16mm mirror-reflex movie camera designed and manufactured in the USSR by KMZ. Production of the Krasnogorsk-3 ceased in the early 1990s...
series, several million of which were produced. It also has a large military optics and mechanical engineering division.
Founding and post-war years
After the German invasionOperation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
of the Soviet Union in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
had acute need for precision optical instruments. The existing factories were either inaccessible, such as LOMO
LOMO
LOMO or Leningrad Optical Mechanical Amalgamation is a manufacturer of advanced optical instruments, medical equipment, consumer still and movie cameras, projectors, lenses, film editors, splicers, professional sound recorders for motion-picture production based in St. Petersburg, Russia...
in besieged
Siege of Leningrad
The Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade was a prolonged military operation resulting from the failure of the German Army Group North to capture Leningrad, now known as Saint Petersburg, in the Eastern Front theatre of World War II. It started on 8 September 1941, when the last...
Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
, or overloaded with demand, such as FED
FED (camera)
The FED is a Soviet rangefinder camera, mass produced from 1934 until around 1990, and also the name of the factory that made it.FED is indirectly named after Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Cheka...
which had just been evacuated
Emergency evacuation
Emergency evacuation is the immediate and rapid movement of people away from the threat or actual occurrence of a hazard. Examples range from the small scale evacuation of a building due to a bomb threat or fire to the large scale evacuation of a district because of a flood, bombardment or...
from Kharkiv
Kharkiv
Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...
to Berdsk
Berdsk
Berdsk is a town in Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia, a satellite of Novosibirsk, situated on a bank of the Berd River. Population: It was founded in 1716 as a fortress. Town status was granted to it in 1944...
. The KMZ factory was set up in 1942 near Moscow, which by then was no longer in immediate danger from German troops, on the site of a recently evacuated mechanical plant. Initially the company took over production of scopes
Telescopic sight
A telescopic sight, commonly called a scope, is a sighting device that is based on an optical refracting telescope. They are equipped with some form of graphic image pattern mounted in an optically appropriate position in their optical system to give an accurate aiming point...
and binoculars
Binoculars
Binoculars, field glasses or binocular telescopes are a pair of identical or mirror-symmetrical telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point accurately in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes when viewing distant objects...
as well as reconnaissance
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....
cameras.
After the end of the war, KMZ began producing photographic lenses in 1945 to the specifications of the Carl Zeiss corporation, whose factory in Jena
Jena
Jena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. It has a population of approx. 103,000 and is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...
had been overrun by the Red Army and largely transported off as war reparations
War reparations
War reparations are payments intended to cover damage or injury during a war. Generally, the term war reparations refers to money or goods changing hands, rather than such property transfers as the annexation of land.- History :...
. In the post-war years KMZ also began producing the Zorki
Zorki
Zorki is the name of a series of 35mm rangefinder cameras manufactured in the Soviet Union between 1948 and 1978.The Zorki was a product of the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory , which also produced the Zenit single lens reflex camera...
camera, a close copy of the German Leica II and the Soviet FED
FED (camera)
The FED is a Soviet rangefinder camera, mass produced from 1934 until around 1990, and also the name of the factory that made it.FED is indirectly named after Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Cheka...
, as well as copies of Zeiss medium-format cameras under the name Moskva. These mark the beginning of consumer
Consumer
Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...
production at KMZ besides the original military focus of the company. During the following years, KMZ was the main supplier of photographic lenses
Photographic lens
A camera lens is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to make images of objects either on photographic film or on other media capable of storing an image chemically or electronically.While in principle a simple convex lens will suffice, in...
in the Soviet Union.
1950s and 1960s: Years of creativity
The mid-1950s saw the beginning of a period of heightened R&DResearch and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
activity at KMZ. One reason was that lens production could be offloaded to a number of other new optical plants, including Arsenal
Kiev Arsenal factory
State enterprise of a special instrumentation Arsenal , for brevity Arsenal Factory, is one of the oldest and most famous industrial factories of the Ukrainian capital Kiev.-Pre-1918:...
in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
which began producing lenses in 1955. This freed up valuable resources at KMZ. Another reason was the changed economic policy under Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, which placed more emphasis on producing consumer goods, such as cameras, instead of investment goods
Investment goods
In economics, investment goods are the plant, machinery, and equipment that enable production, and are the main input into new installed capital.- External sources :...
and heavy industry
Heavy industry
Heavy industry does not have a single fixed meaning as compared to light industry. It can mean production of products which are either heavy in weight or in the processes leading to their production. In general, it is a popular term used within the name of many Japanese and Korean firms, meaning...
. As a result, KMZ produced several highly interesting concept cameras that won international prizes at fairs such as the 1958 World Exhibition
Expo '58
Expo 58, also known as the Brussels World’s Fair, Brusselse Wereldtentoonstelling or Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles, was held from 17 April to 19 October 1958...
in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
.
The company's Zorki
Zorki
Zorki is the name of a series of 35mm rangefinder cameras manufactured in the Soviet Union between 1948 and 1978.The Zorki was a product of the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory , which also produced the Zenit single lens reflex camera...
line of rangefinder cameras
Rangefinder camera
A rangefinder camera is a camera fitted with a rangefinder: a range-finding focusing mechanism allowing the photographer to measure the subject distance and take photographs that are in sharp focus...
underwent significant modifications that moved it gradually from being a direct Leica copy towards an original camera line of its own. Several other highly interesting rangefinder camera lines were developed out of the Zorki in the early 1960s and put to market in relatively small numbers. However, the most influential camera developed during this period was the Zenit
Zenit (camera)
Zenit is a Russian camera brand manufactured by KMZ in the town of Krasnogorsk near Moscow since 1952 and by BelOMO in Belarus since the 1970s. The Zenit trademark is associated with 35mm SLR cameras...
, a single-lens reflex camera
Single-lens reflex camera
A single-lens reflex camera is a camera that typically uses a semi-automatic moving mirror system that permits the photographer to see exactly what will be captured by the film or digital imaging system, as opposed to pre-SLR cameras where the view through the viewfinder could be significantly...
based on the Zorki rangefinder body. The Zenit line was presented in 1953, and of the first generation of Zenit cameras, more than 1.2 million units were produced until the end of the 1960s. A major redesign was presented in 1967 that made the line compatible with the M42 lens mount
M42 lens mount
The M42 lens mount is a screw thread mounting standard for attaching lenses to 35 mm cameras, primarily single-lens reflex models. It is more accurately known as the M42 × 1 mm standard, which means that it is a metric screw thread of 42 mm diameter and 1 mm thread pitch...
that was in use worldwide. In 1965, KMZ also began producing movie cameras
Movie camera
The movie camera is a type of photographic camera which takes a rapid sequence of photographs on strips of film which was very popular for private use in the last century until its successor, the video camera, replaced it...
, of which was the Krasnogorsk
Krasnogorsk (camera)
The Krasnogorsk-3 is a spring-wound 16mm mirror-reflex movie camera designed and manufactured in the USSR by KMZ. Production of the Krasnogorsk-3 ceased in the early 1990s...
series for 16 mm film
16 mm film
16 mm film refers to a popular, economical gauge of film used for motion pictures and non-theatrical film making. 16 mm refers to the width of the film...
was the most well-known. During this time, there was substantial cooperation between the military and the civilian sections at KMZ; an example of this is the Horizont
Horizont
The Horizont is a mechanical swing-lens panoramic camera. produced in the Soviet Union in the 1960s, it has an all-metal, rectangular body and removable grip and viewfinder.First introduced at Photokina in 1966.Film : 35mm filmPicture size : 24 x 58mm...
panoramic camera of 1967, which was developed out of an older artillery camera and continues to be produced in modified fashion to this day.
1970s and 1980s: Catering to the domestic market
The pace of R&D for consumer products at KMZ substantially slowed down at the end of the 1960s. One reason for this might have been the relatively low output figures. Since large amounts of resources were channeled towards research and development, production figures itself were low. Under the conditions of the Soviet planned economyEconomy of the Soviet Union
The economy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was based on a system of state ownership of the means of production, collective farming, industrial manufacturing and centralized administrative planning...
, these absolute production figures tended to be the main indicator for a company's productivity, which made it somewhat undesirable to invest in research and development. Another reason may have been the changed economic policy under Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...
, which again focused increasingly on heavy industry
Heavy industry
Heavy industry does not have a single fixed meaning as compared to light industry. It can mean production of products which are either heavy in weight or in the processes leading to their production. In general, it is a popular term used within the name of many Japanese and Korean firms, meaning...
and arms production
Arms industry
The arms industry is a global industry and business which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology and equipment. It comprises government and commercial industry involved in research, development, production, and service of military material, equipment and facilities...
.
During the 1970s consumer production at KMZ shifted towards producing large numbers of individual, relatively simple models of the existing product lines. These still underwent smaller modifications and innovations, but there was a clear focus on mass production. The Zorki line of rangefinder cameras was continued until 1980 with a single model dating back to the 1956, of which 2.2 million were produced with some modifications. The Krasnogorsk-3 movie camera was produced in a largely unchanged fashion from 1971 to 1989. The Zenit line of SLRs saw somewhat more substantial modifications, such as the addition of light metering
Light meter
A light meter is a device used to measure the amount of light. In photography, a light meter is often used to determine the proper exposure for a photograph...
, but here too the focus was primarily on mass producing tried-and-true models, rather than implementing technical innovations such as automatic exposure
Exposure (photography)
In photography, exposure is the total amount of light allowed to fall on the photographic medium during the process of taking a photograph. Exposure is measured in lux seconds, and can be computed from exposure value and scene luminance over a specified area.In photographic jargon, an exposure...
that had been standard in the West for almost a decade before they appeared on the Zenit. To cope with domestic demand, Zenit production was outsourced to several other camera works in the Soviet Union as well. More than 6 million Zenit cameras were produced at KMZ until the end of the 1980s, but by that time the Zenit comparatively outdated. During this time, the relative importance of the military section of KMZ grew, in response to the increasing focus on arms production in the USSR in general. KMZ also developed a major focus in metallurgy
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
, mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
and optoelectronics
Optoelectronics
Optoelectronics is the study and application of electronic devices that source, detect and control light, usually considered a sub-field of photonics. In this context, light often includes invisible forms of radiation such as gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet and infrared, in addition to visible light...
.
In 1989, KMZ had about 32,000 employees.
Since the 1990s: Collapse and reconstruction
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, KMZ production was largely in disarray. Consumer products such as the Zenit line continued to be produced for some time, but found competition on the international market increasingly hard. KMZ continued to be present at international photography fairs such as PhotokinaPhotokina
The photokina is the world's largest trade fair for the photographic and imaging industries. The first photokina was held in Cologne, Germany, in 1950, and it is now held biannually in September at the koelnmesse Trade Fair and Exhibition Centre...
or PMA
Photo Marketing Association Annual Convention and Trade Show
The Photo Marketing Association International International Convention and Trade Show is an annual imaging technology trade show conducted by PMA held in Las Vegas. The PMA International Convention and Trade Show frequently are the occasion for the public introductions of important imaging products...
and even presented some new products, but had trouble with production and marketing. The photography division of the company was closed in 2005. Currently, the only camera line in production is the Horizon
Horizon (camera)
The Horizon is a mechanical swing-lens panoramic camera. It is manufactured by Krasnogorskiy Zavod in Krasnogorsk, Russia, better-known for their range of Zenit cameras.Cameras with similar functions include the Noblex and Widelux....
line of panoramic cameras, which caters to a niche market and has little international competition.
In 2007, there was some discussion of a resumed camera production at KMZ and the possibility of producing a digital camera
Digital camera
A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
, but this has so far remained insubstantial.
Logo
Before 1949 the KMZ logo was a simple dove prismDove prism
A Dove prism is a type of reflective prism which is used to invert an image. Dove prisms are shaped from a truncated right-angle prism. A beam of light entering one of the sloped faces of the prism undergoes total internal reflection from the inside of the longest face and emerges from the...
, nicknamed "tomb" by factory workers. In 1949 the logo was changed to the present form, depicting a prism with a refracted
Refraction
Refraction is the change in direction of a wave due to a change in its speed. It is essentially a surface phenomenon . The phenomenon is mainly in governance to the law of conservation of energy. The proper explanation would be that due to change of medium, the phase velocity of the wave is changed...
ray of light
Ray (optics)
In optics, a ray is an idealized narrow beam of light. Rays are used to model the propagation of light through an optical system, by dividing the real light field up into discrete rays that can be computationally propagated through the system by the techniques of ray tracing. This allows even very...
.
External links
- Official company website (in Russian)
- Website of the company's photography and R&D division (in Russian)
- Complete list of KMZ camera products (in English)
- List of KMZ lenses (in Russian)